It was the 1980s and US authorities, after Richard Nixon's declaration of war on the illicit drug trade, were busy trying to stem the tide of cocaine flowing in from Colombia — then among the largest exporters of narcotics in the world.

Mazur's was part of 'Operation C-Chase', designed to focus on infiltrating one cartel in particular — the Medellín Cartel run by the 'King of Cocaine', Pablo Escobar.

Throughout the '80s and '90s, Escobar is thought to have made millions of dollars a week from his global drug-trafficking operation.

Mazur was given undercover training and spent more than a year constructing a sophisticated front with real businesses to clean money for the cartel.

He built the guise of a business executive in a financial consulting firm and had to look the part too. No detail was spared.

There was an air charter service, a Cessna Citation jet, a jewellery chain with 30 locations on the east coast, and even a brokerage firm with a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.

"The best way to describe my role is that I became a part of, or a person functioning within, the black money markets," Mazur said.

There's a lot of money to be made in China, Mazur says, through both legitimate and illegitimate means, and Australia should pay attention to the issue, especially given China is a top trading partner.

Detective Superintendent Scott Cook was the commander of the organised crime squad for NSW Police from 2014 until earlier this year.

"For example, buying 100 iPads and then selling them in China to get the value transferred from Australia to China," Cook said. "That transfer of value is really what is occurring, but there are many methods."

The NSW Crimes Commission has also conducted investigations into professional money-laundering syndicates linked to China. In one case, it seized more than $8 million in crime proceeds.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates between 2 per cent and 5 per cent of global GDP — up to $2 trillion — is laundered every year.

"We've seen examples of accountants who have facilitated money laundering through the establishment of company structures and bank accountants accompanying them, and businesses that buy products made in China and export them back to China," Cook said.

"Now there are a whole bunch of issues around GST, input credits, discounting for buying in bulk, and so on that are associated with that.

"The bottom line for them is to transfer the value out of Australia to another country and so in the process of doing that, if they can avoid regulation, and do it where there is no regulation organised crime will do that."